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User blog:The Xanana/Code Lyoko; A Franchise in Review.
Introduction I've decided now that my life has calmed down a touch no longer being as busy working and such I'm going to try and take some time to rewatch a good chunk of the CL franchise; This is going to be a blog of it as I go along, with some notes before I start *English dub, (where applicable, I am going to watch it in english will state if otherwise in blog for exceptions) *Streamed online, (Don't own the series on dvd or anything) *Chronological order, (for the most part, Xana's awakening predates teddygozila in universe for example) *Not completionary, "Canonincal only" (I'm going to try avoid large chunks of filler and focus soley on episodes that move the plot along, have milestones of somesort, or I find very memorable, maybe if you feel like I missed one please comment and I'll go back to it) *Opinion based, (Obviously this is my opinion if anything I say makes it seem otherwise might just be the way I talk) *Arc/Season based, (I plan to break the review into Seasons further based on arcs, down to episode levels. *No schedule, (this is going to be done in my free time with no absolute schedule, hoping to be done in a month or two though as I'm avoiding "filler" so the series should be rather short) Prologue and Season 1-The wasteland of filler but with glimpses of awesome Introductory arc Xana Awakens and TeddyGozilla Character usage/Development What I'm calling the introductory arc, includes the 2 part Xana awakens and Teddygozilla; Which Xana awakens' starts off with a more self centered Jeremie, an Odd and Ulrich who aren't best friends, Ulrich and Yumi who are martial arts rivals and potential love interests, and Sissy with no minions but, some actual friendship with the maincast, and Maya the unknown computer AI. Over the course of the adventure the group comes closer together, Aelita learns more about herself, Jeremie more about Lyoko, and Sissi forming her role as the secondary/tertiary antagonist of the series. I'd give it's character development and usage a solid 7/10. Plot/Continuity development The plot of this arc is honestly relatively stable, granted that's assuming you believe the worst in humanity or the best depending on perspective; Do you think Jeremie valuing Aelita's chance at life over his well being is a noble sacrifice? or do you think Jeremie valuing his "Virtual girl" over the people around him as psychotic? To be honest I'm going to be cynical and say he's nuts and the plot hinges on it and everyone else believeing in him, so the plot works for me, I mean hitler convinced a nation to go against a religion and start a world war and psuedo-genocide. Continuity on the other hand of this arc is fairly low in my opinion, but it makes sense out of universe, in Xana awakens' for example the lighting engines and such are all wrong, due to the old ones probably being thrown away. Can't blame that, but Odd used his shield power? That was a fuck up. There were a few more, like odd and yumi figuring out their weapons very quickly, entering the tower wrong one time and never again? They seemingly learned things unnaturally fast to me considering they're C and D students in middle school, and also how did aelita seemingly know by instinct how to deactivate the tower? In TeddyGozilla which is a more normal episode things were also a little off in a couple ways but you can just wink those away as the lighting engines weren't fine tuned, but the crater with tunnel idea? I loved it wish it was used more later, but makes me ask why did the pulsations lead them around such an odd way to the tower, and not a more direct way? Plot I give an 7.5/10 and Continuity I give a 3.5/10 so total 6/10 Animation, Sound, Dubbing, ect Going to just hurry through this and say thankfully the error count was relatively low, the animation was on par-good for when the episodes were released, the sounds were a tad jarring to me watching them back to back due to different sound tracks, but excusable given the circumstances and not a lot of recycled footage granted Teddygozilla and Xana Awakens are some of the first episodes (chronologically) so they're the source material for reused footage in later episodes. 7/10 Overall this arc I give a 6.9/10 (insert obligatory 69 joke) Lyoko Adventures arc Cruel dillema, Image problem, The Girl of the dreams,and Just in time. Character usage/development To be honest at this point in lyoko history, the story was a "story of the week" thing with little-to-no over arcing plot, I just chose these few episodes cause they have the strongest correlation with Guardians and Failed materializations. So this is sort of a stale moment, where only 2 things really get developed, the Materialization program and Xana... Most of the characters are cardboard cut outs at this point, Yumi-Punching Bag, Odd-Jokester, Ulrich-Hero?, Jeremie-Idiot programmer in love, Aelita-Princess?, Sissi-Bitch, Jim-Police, Xana-SuperVillain. 5/10 Simply because character usage was good, and development wasn't terrible if you think they developed into these cardboard cutouts, and Xana did develop a decent chunk, as did Jeremie-Aelita shipping in Girl of the dreams in Just in time. Plot/Continuity development Again this arc, doesn't really focus on developing anything so much as it does creating a status quo, and sticking to it, but to it's credit it did that rather well I feel, this arc I feel is what made Code Lyoko Season 1 at least good, it had decent drama, I could see a first time viewer with no knowledge of the show falling for some of it's drama like the death of yumi and aelitas, in Cruel Dillema and Just In Time respectively, but, that'd also require them not knowing the rules of cartoons in which characters don't really die. 7/10 Just for setting up a decent formula and sticking to it well, (note this score would be much lower if I included more episodes I feel these 4 episodes are relatively cherry picked) Animation, Sound, Dubbing, ect. This arc was really rather meh, not note worthy one way or the other, in this department, but I'd like to point out some other "errors" or just questionable moments, in image problem how come Jeremie didn't notice the kankrelots or anything behind the turret guarding the guardian? And, why wasn't the tower Aelita was in active the whole time? And, if the guardian just allows xana to make clones in the real world without a tower, why didn't he in Girl of the dreams. Speaking of Girl of the dreams, why was aelita just roaming around the mountain sector and not hiding in a tower? I mean she's safer in a tower, and towers are where she helps configure things for her materialization program. 4.5/10 Overall I think this arc is 5/10 it's entertaining but only if you don't over think things, and are okay with status quos Materialization Arc Frontier, Ghost Channel, Code:Earth, and False Start Character usage/development I feel like these episodes are the only three/four (since CodeEarth and False start are a 2 parter) in season 1 that break the mould. Frontier and Ghost Channel feature Jeremie actually doing something to help save everyone else and actually trying to prove himself by going to "Lyoko" ... Ghost Channel, Code Earth and False start are the only 3 episodes in which aelita impacts the real world other than by using the Code Lyoko, In frontier everyone works together to save Jeremie, in Code:Earth and False Start Jim does something other than be a hindrance. Interms of characters; 10/10 this is how the characters should be, but does this mean everyone peaks in late season 1 of a 5 season show? Maybe, whilst this is a high, and there will be lows characters can develop and be useful in many ways, so whilst I feel this is how the characters should be, they can change and still be good. Plot/Continuity development The plot started moving for the first time yet, as I said at the start I'm not doing the whole series, just bits and pieces that stick out or help move the plot along... and so far even so we've had numerous episodes that really didn't move the plot along in any meaningful or measureable way but, these 3/4 episodes have put in work more so than the first 20 episodes. In Frontier and Ghost Channel it's finally out right stated why Jeremie never goes to Lyoko, it's out of fear and the fact he's more useful in the lab, also I feel like the characters really are friends now, in the introductory arc I felt more like they were just brought together by circumstances, in the adventures arc I felt like it was simply the danger and personal reasons keeping the group together; examples being in Image problem, the group was easily torn apart over the fake yumi, and taelia in Girl of the Dreams. The group dynamic is more flexible and now, and Aelita's now materialized, things developed quite well but this sounds like the end of a story rather than the beginning do note this is still season 1, so where does the show go from here? Xana can now virus people, like aelita which to me makes little sense given later on story elements but for this point in the show it was a nice logical jump. 8/10 Story and Continuity in my opinion it's a nice cliff hanger as well as a bitter-sweet end to the first season. Animation, Sound, Dubbing, ect. Animation I feel like was pretty good here, as was sound, and dubbing, reused footage sadly was a bit higher than I'd like, and well this isn't exactly an error with this arc but with the bigger story beyond this, the shows explanations of some plot devices are later contradicted or just ignored... but those are issues with the more overall story and the later points in the show forgetting about earlier points, not the otherway around 8/10 simply because of reused footage draining some of the "wow" factor. Overall for the Arc; 8.5/10 Final thoughts of the season The characters I feel got stale for a moment, but it made sense during the middle for them to be a bit stale thinking in universe they were probably tired of the constant trouble they had to deal with, and they kept having high hopes only being dashed; Like the materialization program being made not once but twice and still no Aelita, but in the end it bound them together and made them better. The plot I feel like simply took too long, and note I skipped over half the episodes in the full season, I cut it down to around 12, when between Season 1 and Xana awakens there's 28, and it still felt a tad long, if not for the out of universe explanation of the network asking for this lack of overarching story, I'd say the 1st season should've been 13 episodes, with tighter plot and skipping to season 2 quicker. Overall for the season; 7.25/10 Shows good promise but took too long to do so. Season 2-Bipolar between plot and filler Hermitage/New Sector arc New Order, Unchartered Territory, Exploration, A Great Day, and Mister Puck Character Usage/Development Okay, here in season 2 they hurry through alot of changes quickly; but in terms of characters alone there's alot of development even if you don't notice it all. Even Xana's evolved alot but here just going to rush through a list of it. #Xana - New powers including possession and new monsters (Tarantula, Creepers, Schyphozoa, and Manta) #Ulrich - More attraction towards Yumi, Jealousy of William #Aelita - New cell phone, new outfit, New dorm room, No longer green eyed, New fake identity (From canada vs Holland and last name is now Stones instead of Lyoko) #Yumi - New love interest in William #William - New Student, Love interest in William #Franz Hopper - New mystery, sort of a B plot at this point in time, with the A plot being the episodely plots and getting Aelita her anti virus That's quite a bit of development, and that's not even all of it, but it is the majority of it, so onto Character usage; in New Order everyone gets their use even when the attack takes Ulrich and Yumi out of the picture they're still not useless they still have things to talk about relevent to a plot (granted it's a useless romance subplot) makes them feel more human like in my opinion, Unchartered territory uses everyone perfectly again even Sissy as the secondary antagonist she is, Exploration even brings in Yumi's parents for pete's sake and when Odd and Ulrich are taken out for half the episode it only adds to episode by adding to the drama, A Great Day presents the main cast rather organicly again Sissi being a secondary antagonist and trying to bribe the group, and fitting perfectly into xana's attack by distracting them and becoming a tool of Xana, Mister Puck uses all of the major characters well too. Ulrich-William rivalry, one of the most famous rivalrys of the whole series starts here, with Ulrich not liking William and his quickly found friendship with Yumi, it's really how most early highschool kids would respond. I think it works well, even Odd plays the perfect part of the best friend just trying to help his friend, by trying to calm ulrich down and take his mind off of it by taking ulrich away from them as he had said in New order after the return in time. Yumi's parents even actually have a meaningful appearance unlike season 1 where other than the finale they had 0 impact, they are responding the way I think most parents would considering Yumi looks rather gothic, and is coming home late often. My only issue is that one episode they're fine with her having a crush or boyfriend yet next episode they hate the idea. 8/10 Not as great as last arc in my opinion the thing I didn't mention earlier is I feel they changed too drastically too quickly, Yes I'm actually wishing there was more filler but these episodes were all in a row at the start of season they should've laced some filler in here (rather than just have the middle of the season have it all) still better than early and mid season 1 however. Plot/Continuity development Okay instead of materializing Aelita the goal now is to get her an anti virus, but a B plot involving an abandoned house known as the hermitage arises, Xana no longer tries to kill Aelita but steal her memory, There's a 5th sector where Xana lives, Xana is now strong enough to possess people, and even make amplify them. From now on Xana's attacks seem to be more designed to attack humans and not just the general area and factory, and strategically building on themselves, for example in "Image Problem" way back the fake yumi was suspicious they stuck out like a sore thumb, but possessed Jeremie fully convinced everyone he was normal until PE class and even sucessfully kidnapped Aelita the only reason Xana didn't win right then and there was dumb luck Yumi was in the bathroom watching them. Between the A+B(which in the end are the same plot but for a first time viewer you wouldn't know) and even the minor C plots (like Yumi's Parents, Sissi's black mail, Ulrich-William rivalry) I give this arc a nice 8.5/10 Animation, Sound, Dubbing, Ect. The animation has in my opinion stepped up a bit, with the new aelita design on earth, Williams' design, the design of Sector 5 and the new monsters all being nice new designs, plus the spectres and earth are also designed well, as is the possessed people on earth. Lyoko's got new lighting engines mostly noticable in the forest sector. The new opening also in my opinion goes much better with everything, and the vehicles on Lyoko, have made it a bit harder for them to reuse as many old scenes, granted after this they'll just start reusing these scenes too, still not terrible. I've previously ranted about some stupid moments in the show and there's a couple more I'd like to point out in unchartered territory why didn't aelita just stay in the inner dome of sector 5? And before she's in the core zone, but after she leaves the dome how did the creeper get behind her to force her into the core zone? Inspite of these moments that made me question the show I'd still have to give it a nice 9/10 Overall for the arc and New vs Old 8.5 for the Arc as a whole which would put it on par with the last arc, but better than the last season as a whole in my opinion, but due note where the points came from I feel as though the characters were better and more relatable last arc, but this arc has a better story uses background characters to better further the story, here is also where the standards get higher, cause we know CL can have a plot, and from here on out this is the new standard for general show quality (Like animation, sound and dubbing) Franz Hopper arc Tip Top Shape, Franz Hopper, Contact, Revelation, and The Key. Charater usage/development Character usage in this arc is really bad in my opinion, most of these episodes more revolve around Aelita, Jeremie and Franz. Only notable exceptions is Tip top shape uses Odd somewhat well, Revelation uses Ulrich for a nice fight scene (the best one pre season 4 in my opinion) but the rest is of the plot is more focused around the mystery of Franz Hopper, Xana, Aelita and Lyoko. Development for Xana isn't really anything note worthy in terms of "personality" same for Hopper it just lessens the mystery around him, but other than small help in Contact, Revelation, and The Key he didn't get shown off alot. Aelita, and Jeremie are the only ones to develop at all, Aelita goes from Nuts, to Nuttier and in denial. 3/10 too much ignoring of all but the main most characters even some of the lyoko warriors are ignored not even good cardboard cut outs are left in their place, they're just ignored. Plot/Continuity development This is where this arc shines, as after filler of mid Season 2 they jammed half the plot into the final quarter of the season, in Tip Top Shape they show off Jeremie actually learning how to use the supercomputer in this case to activate a tower which you know is gonna be relevent later on, and it was Franz Hopper shows off Franz Hopper portrayed by Xana showing that Franz is gonna be an even more major plot device, and again he was, in Contact he takes over a tower for a counter offensive to clear his name seemingly, and while you ntoice I said this is where the arc shines, it still kind of flops, I feel like it rushed through it too quickly for kind of drama it wanted. The drama was ruined by exposing plot points early; List time! #TipTopShape spoiled the fact people other than Xana can activate towers (Like Jeremie and Franz in Contact and Revelation) #Franz Hopper spoiled the fact Franz is their ally (As seen in Contact, Revelation, and The Key) #Contact spoiled the fact Franz can activate towers (Which revealed Revelation) #Revelation spoiled it's own spectre attack, Xana's plans, and the fact Franz is Aelita's dad(in my opinion this should've waited for next episode) In my opinion what would've saved this arc and most of the season would've been cutting down on the filler in the middle, and spreading more of the plot throughout the season maybe for example if 4/5 episodes were spread out you'd forget the spoilers and help the drama along. The way it was done, to me it feels like spoiling future plot elements if more spaced out in my opinion it'd be more of a building up process not just a "Fuck we've got 5 out of 26 episodes left and only half the plots done" cluster fuck, and a big thing I figured I'd save for the very end, is the end relies almost entirely on Jeremie's over confidence and being an idiot and falling for and talking everyone into Xana's trap, 6/10 just bad sense of timing. Animation, Sound, Dubbing, ect. This portion of the story is very wishy washy over all but here it actually doesn't do terrible, TipTopShape shows off amazing animation in the Yolanda vs Odd fight, and Yumi and Aelita going around blindly throughout the forest sector, in Franz Hopper the effects in sector 5 of everyone using their new weapons were really nice. Contact I feel cheaped out a bit, but it was made up for it, in Revelation with quite possibly the best fight scene of the show until Final Round. 7/10 Overalls For the arc, 5.75/10 it felt like a step backward from the last two arcs reminding me of the bad pacing of season 1, with not alot to make up for it. For the season 7/10 slightly worst than last season overall but for different reasons. For the series so far; 7.2/10 better than average but not as good as I feel it was when I watched it as a kid, So far atleast. As a kid when the show was airing at this point I was hooked; I probably would've said 9/10 or something close. Season 3-When filler takes a nap(Not really) All of the season minus Tidal Wave, False Lead, Aelita, Temporary Insanity, and Triple Trouble... Because of how many episodes this means I'm covering and I can't think of any reasonable splitting points for arcs I think I'm going to switch to an episode by episode format simply hurry through then give more overall thoughts after. Straight to heart; Aelita no longer requires Code;Earth, and can use energy fields, Lyoko has a core and Xana wants it dead, Yumi is trying to friendzone Ulrich. better than average 6/10 Lyoko minus one; Aelita can delete sectors, Scyphozoa can possess people, William proves useful, Xana's stronger, and Forest sector is gonzo. Fairly Good 8/10 *insert filler into a 12 episode season* The pretender; Johnny likes Yumi (because who doesn't in this show, and sadly this doesn't really recur so it's kind of useless basically season 3 TheoxSissi), Desert sectors gone. #FeelsBadMan 3/10 The secret; William is again useful, even considered as a new LW, bomb drama, and aelita doesn't quite delete the ice sector. 6/10 average Sabotage; Computers sabotaged as if this hasn't been done before just this time it's hardware and not software based irrelevent after this episode even though it's said it won't be, Aelita deletes ice sector willingly. Below average 4/10 Nobody in particular; Dubbing errors everywhere, Guinie pig mission, and the aftermath. Pretty bad 3/10 Double trouble; William remembers, everyones running into scheduling issues especially Yumi, minus mountain sector, Jeremie finally learns how to virtualize straight into sector 5(coincedentally the moment he basically has to) and William joins the group 6/10 Average FINAL ROUND; Obvious conclusion is obvious Xana tries to destroy the final sector, scheduling conflicts everywhere, Aelita and William alone on Lyoko and the schyphozoa doesn't go for aelita this time, Williams a monster and 1 by 1 beats everyone then the core of lyoko. 8/10 fairly good; Would be a 10/10 if not for my next season review pointing out some flaws Season review Overall the season cuts back on filler alot, but it also cuts back on the story alot, they spread small small amounts of plot across 2/3rds of the season, it also cut back on episode count to achieve this effect. I used to love this season until I rewatched it for this review it was probably my favorite... but I realized some huge issues now, alot of things introduced in this season even if they should be recurring aren't Johnny-Yumi shipping is like season 1 all over again, the sabotage incedent really never does anything ever again. This season alone would be somewhat solid if not for it's impact or rather the lack thereof on the future (season 4) I mean Xana for no reason (yes I know it's explained Franz escaped xana's clutches but I mean he must have done that earlier considering he helped the LWs in season 2) changes strategies from destroying Lyoko to dropping aelita into the digital sea. I mean in season 3 he had the chance for Xana-Aelita to jump into the digital sea bait out hopper and then kill him with aelita's energy fields killed him first then destroyed lyoko. The lyoko warriors have taken a fully defensive position and not even a good one at that, I mean okay what are their goals they achieve this season; Learn how to virtualize to season 5? Kind of mediocre unless the other seasons are deleted or in a real hurry. Find Xana on the internet? Really vague goal and xana could be all over the place. Materialize Franz Hopper? Probably best they failed I don't think materializing him would have been for the best anyway. I'd like to point out without towers as far as they know at the time Xana can't attack them, and Aelita doesn't need it to live anymore. They could just play a game of turn the computer on only when needed to minimize Xana attacks, but they just take his abuse. Overall there's only one real thing this season does to help setup the next season and that's PermaXanafy William after throwing him on Lyoko. Other differences in season 4 are no Key mechanism on Sector 5 the sectors are rebuilt rather quickly you can almost forget they get deleted, and Jeremie can now virtualize straight to Sector 5. Overall reviews For the season/arc in one; Whilst the individual episodes are fairly good the underlying story amongst them is USELESS and could've been compressed into one episode. Note as a kid when I watched these episodes on release I had Tivo and rewinded most of these episodes alot I LOVED them individually; but this is a review of the season which I feel was a useless season. 4/10 Simply because of the uselessness of the season. For the Series so far; Interms of episode formula this show improved upon it, but overarcing plot took a hit because they then abused that new formula. 6/10 which upsets me to think about simply looking at the episode list and figuring out which episodes I deemed as "filler or canon" and my memory of the series from when I was a kid made me think the show gets gradually better but I'm starting to think I was wrong. Season 4-Filler here and there, Good fights though Return of Lyoko/to lyoko and beyond arc William Returns, Double Take, Wreck Room, Skidbladnir, and Maiden Voyage Character usage/development This arc makes usage of most of the lyoko warriors, and some of the more background characters; Jim, William, and even polymorphic spectres (like Jeremie 2 and William 2). Character development whilst not great is pretty good, with William developing into a great villain, Jeremie's work ethics being dived into a bit more (too lazy to actually do phys ed, but working hard on his tasks at hand) then being forced into something dangerous showing just how hard he'll work if he has to. Characters this arc I'd give a solid 8/10 no cardboard cut outs here only a few moments of real character. Plot/Continuity development This arc does a great job of picking up the slack of season 3, quickly redeveloping Lyoko and introducing William as a new "villain" followed by trying to figure out what to do in his absence on earth, as well as actually trying a counter offence for one of the few times in CL history, and then by quickly using this new weapon by exploring to hopefully find something of use which they then do setting up what I consider the next arc. Some other notes include Sector 5 no longer has a key, and the north pole of carthage now leads to the Skid. 7/10 I have some small issues but nothing huge. Animation, Sound, Dubbing, Ect. Again here's a high point in the show much like early season 2 back in the "Hermitage/New Sector arc" where things in my opinion are at a high in terms of production quality, whilst last time was due to a revamping of the lighting engines and such and the cast returning to their roles knowing the characters better making it better... This time is because of great fighting scenes, new outfits (both real and on lyoko), the digital sea's appearence, ect... 10/10 well done but again like last time, I'm going to consider this the new standard. Overall for the arc; 8.75 so far my favorite from a numerical stand point Replika hunting arc Replika, Lab Rat, Bragging Rights, A Lack of a Goodwill, Hard Luck, and A Space Oddity Character usage/development In this arc character usage is rather good I must say, constantly splitting the warriors into smaller groups most of which are unique causing good group dynamics, showing how characters interact when split into smaller groups. On the other hand I feel like there's a decent step back in development because people are constantly fighting which in this arc sort of became an over used meme in my opinion. It's sad to say but I think the one who got the most development this arc is William 2, almost entirely because of the events of "A lack of a goodwill" which is SAD, that the clone the place holder, the substitute was the most developed one around; which reminds me of some head canon child me thought was gonna happen when I saw the episode when it originally aired was that William 2 was going to start helping the warriors more often/possibly hold the role of one, I would have loved if that were the case I can just imagine a William versus William fight with William 2 being in white and William in black. Okay I think I've spent enough time going over this though; 9/10 Good group dynamics but I think they were too fighty with eachother which makes little sense by this point you think the characters would be more used to each other ect ect. Plot/Continuity development The plot here really thickens, with the warriors taking huge offenses and Xana being forced to defend himself it's a nice change of pace in my opinion... Considering, until now they've been entirely on the defence in Seasons 1 and 3, and in season 2 they were back and forth with their only offences being exploring sector 5 for data (which was trapped sometimes and none of it was really useful so they got nothing out of it) Tip top shape(which was really only a counter and fell apart) with Marabounta being an attack which again fell apart. But again there are problems here, why can Aelita affect the turrets on the replikas you'd think Xana would've modified that feature out when creating the replikas, Jeremie can virtualize vehicles onto replikas but not the warriors also seems strange but in all of season 2+3 he could do the same with sector 5, how was teleportation/energization so easy to program exactly seems like it'd be difficult to me, the bug in "Hard Luck" just seems to vanish for no reason, and another one is William he was possessed by Xana via the Scyphozoa correct? Yes, as was Aelita back in Season 3 all over the place, how come William enters Code;Xana and is still Xana's minion yet, it de-xanafied Aelita everytime back in season 3. Space Oddity also has another issue, how long was the space station abandoned? It didn't sound like a terribly long time but by this point in the show Xana's had control of that super computer for a long while I'd imagine. But inspite of these issues, 8.5/10 is the score I'm going to give to it, because of sheer enjoyment and some of those issues are really nit picky... Animation, Sound, Dubbing, ect. Whilst nothing terribly new or innovative is introduced I'd like to think these episodes are kind of cool, introducing new scenery in the form of the real world locations of the Super Calculators(why is this a phrase? Minus 1 point) the fights when teleported are also fairly interesting, again 8/10 probably would've been lower but I really enjoyed the real world lyoko warrior scenes like Odd and Yumi versus William in Siberia was a great fight, but, some of the lines of the show just left me questioning life, reality and my childhood sanity (I know I have none as an adult but I thought child me had some, guess not) Overall; 8.5/10 the show found a new formula, beat it with a stick, this stick is called a "baseball bat" to most people and they knocked the formula right out of the park, I feel like season 4 really might be a winner cause looking at the episode numbers I feel like the filler of S4 just made the pacing better rather than detracting from it, unlike seasons 1 and 2. End of Xana arc Cold Sweat, Down to Earth, Fight to the Finish, and Echoes Character usage/development In terms of character usage, Cold Sweat, Down to Earth, and Echoes were flawless, Fight to the finish not quite so but even the show recognized it which I feel makes up for it, it was great the show knew what we wanted to see of William fighting side by side with everyone again, but instead of fanservicely giving us that, it actually respected the characters enough to make them smart enough to not quite trust William immediately. Development on the other hand, basically none was to be had, minus william being freed, william 2 being killed, franz hopper becoming a hero, and Sissi being sissi... 10/10 WOULD BANG. Plot/Continuity development Well here's where I have some issues, with this arc... it's really rather abrupt; Williams' freed over the course of an episode and a half because XANA was an idiot, up till now freeing William was just wishful thinking, Jeremie barely even seemed to be working on it... and it just fell into their lap. Also for another matter, the way they killed Xana with a multi agent system, they even referenced they tried this before to no avail; MARABOUNTA, this time Jeremie just has an appifiany and boom he decides to retry that miserable failure? and he whips up something that's less effective than the marabounta, then Hopper just sprinkles some magic on it, again it just fell into their lap by dumb luck! This arc had terrible pacing, things at the end were just overly rushed and relied on luck just seriously, if the creators thought the show out more it could've been much better considering by my count there was around 13-15 episodes of "filler" in this season they had the time and budget to account for this but no they stuffed everything in the end and they couldn't even do that right?! ECHOES was a thing, that shouldn't have been a thing. Going back to my issues with Season 3, again if the writers had planned things out there's 43 Episodes there they could've done all of what was season three in the first 6 of season three then done early season 4 with the remaining time slot and have season 4 start off with Skidbladnir or something like that; changed everyones outfits then and claimed there was a time skip and have season 4 just be replika hunting whilst Jeremie finds a more permenant solution to end XANA...BOOM so many problems solved in one. 2/10 Just just why? Animation, Sound, Dub, ect ect... Animation plusses were the KOLOSUS, the destruction of the skid, and William as a "Super Spectre" animation minuses were all over the place to the point I can't list them, like just watch ECHOES, it's the definition of FILLER and recycles clips... 4/10 OVERALLS For the arc; it did few things perfectly and everything else pretty badly, it's a classic situation of "the good, the bad, and the ugly" 6/10 (yes btw the overalls aren't just averages of the scorings of the categories) For the season; 8/10 quite possibly the best season it's highly arguable in my opinion. For the series; 7.2/10 I feel this season made up for Season 3 and nothing more really, so I'm gonna use the score I gave back when I finished season 2 Notes I wish I could give the series writers/creators when they were making the show; Less Filler, pace things better across the board, and plan things out from start to finish! Fixing the show whilst making as little changes as possible from what it is cut half of season 1 out of the show, same with season 2; and make them one big Season, 30 Episodes long... and read my notes from above about how to deal with seasons 3 and 4... Make season 3 more impactful, give us more good from season 4, and balance it into say 30 episodes again. 60 Episode series that I'd probably give closer to a 9 than what we got, but what we got was good just not great, I mean it was obviously good since I'm 19 and on a wiki still talking about it... CLE may or may not be reviewed too; not sure I can properly and fairly judge French and Live action acting... Code Lyoko Evolution-The sequel we wanted and lots regretted WIP For CLE I'm going to be reviewing it far differently being a LiveAction show vs Animated (during earth scenes) as well as now I'm being forced to watch it subbed as opposed to in english, and some other things. Xana 2.0 Starts off with a small Xana attack causing the warriors to investigate, followed by larger Xana attack with the knowledge XANA IS BACK. With some new information on changes to Lyoko in general and the Code Lyoko franchise. List time; trying to avoid some things that are just because new series/season *No more Ice or Forest sector (my two favorites personally saddened by this) *No Kiwi *Source codes in a person (Only question is how?) *Spectres can steal source codes (Xana's Goal of the season right here) *Odd =/= Odd Hair color/style is wrong *Other visual tweaks/differences from original due to new Live Action format Not a bad episode I must say, 9/10 for starters only complaint is Aelita was at the tower and turned around to help odd for no reason. Also this starts a trend on CLE that I notice similarities to a previous episode this one reminding me of Franz Hopper; Attack baiting everyone to the factory, in the end new tower on Carthage, explaining everything. The Cortex New virtual world found, it's suspicious and needs to be explored. They show up they explore, due to circumstances neither William nor Odd attend at first, but things look okay on their own so the mission goes on... Things go wrong, and boom errors Yumi and Ulrich are temporarily killed, and William followed by Odd show up to help. This episode draws several similarities with Exploration, and minor ones with Replika. 10/10 I must say nothing stood out as a bad plot element to me. Spectromania Spectres everywhere, group must deal with them, they figure out people other than Aelita can temporarily deactivate towers, and start to abuse it now. 6/10 I dislike the way Xana Source codes can be used to deactivate towers it makes little sense to me, and this episode seemed kind of like a time killer. Mrs. Einstein Nope nothing about Aelita, instead a new genius is in town and Jeremie may have a small crush on her... She's also very curious about how suspicious Jeremie and friends are, much like Sissi and Aelita in one character. This episode parallels "The Secret" with Laura being the new William of that episode, Again 6/10 not bad not great, on the lower end of Good. Rivalry Well the title, goes to explain there's a rivalry between Ulrich and William which has always been there. The episode then forces the two of them to work together and resolve their rivalry and even have William rejoin the group, 7/10 pretty good, and everything in this makes sense from a character perspective. Suspicions Well Yumi throws a benefit, whilst the others investigate the Corex due to their suspicions. 4/10 In my opinion Aelita becomes a bit too paranoid here, and the rest of the group should have been more suspicious of the cortex themselves. Category:Blog posts